Is William ready to be King?

Two opinion polls say the public would prefer Prince William to his father, the Prince of Wales, as our next monarch.

ICM Research says this is the view of 64 per cent of its respondents. YouGov found 56 per cent of this opinion. In a Daily Mail poll, Harris found 48 per cent would be happy for Prince Charles to stand aside.

We’ve had a Queen Mother, but is a King Father feasible?

Ready for responsibility? But does William even want to be King next, or perhaps he'd rather be sheltered a while longer. And it's important to remember that the monarchy isn't the X Factor...the public can't phone in for their choice

Charles has been heir to the throne for 62 years. He says he expects his second wife, Camilla, to become Queen. As for the real Queen, she believes she was anointed by God. Perhaps the public’s apparent ­preference for William is God’s will.

But the monarchy isn’t The X Factor. Its winners aren’t selected by phone-in callers, or a panel of gibbering judges.

However, royals do rely on public support — or, to be precise, political backing which is itself adjusted to public sentiment. Public opinion polls aren’t definitive.

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Twelve months from now, they might say something different about the succession.

Prince William and Kate Middleton have just got engaged. Their pictures are splashed across the papers and TV. They are young and attractive — Kate particularly so.

Their marriage next year is keenly anticipated. Is it surprising that a majority of opinion poll respondents prefer them to dodgy old Charles and Camilla, who are in their 60s and have each been married before?

Nothing untoward is known about William and Kate, but Charles and Camilla are seen as damaged goods. Some who have turned against them think they should be punished for their marital misdeeds and harming the institution of monarchy generally.

But the monarchy cannot be removed from Charles just because he polls less favourably than his elder son. He would have to agree to William becoming heir in his place. Even if father and son agree, such a change would need the support of the Queen.

Does William want to leapfrog his father? Being an heir to the throne is a heavy responsibility. Being the heir to the throne when the reigning monarch is 84 is something else altogether. Maybe he’d prefer to be cushioned from his destiny by his father for a few more years.

We know Charles wants to be King, but what about William? He has been prepared by experts for kingship. He might feel that he can ‘make a difference’ as monarch. But what if he doesn’t want it?

A stand-in could be arranged. Would Prince Harry be ‘acceptable’? Surely in such a scenario a majority of us would think it better to let the monarchy go and bravely face the world without its guidance.

So a lot hangs on William’s disposition. Letting him know there is more public support for him as King than there is for his father could encourage him to seek his destiny sooner. On the other hand might it frighten him off tying himself to fickle public sentiment?

Republic — the pressure group seeking an elected president — says it welcomes the pro-William opinion poll ‘as a clear sign the British public are now demanding choice’.

Spokesman Graham Smith claims ‘it is no longer acceptable to say it will be Charles, no matter what’.

Really? We enjoy being asked our opinion — and hearing about others who share it — but we don’t expect much will come of it, either in politics or matters involving the monarchy.

We don’t have a say about what’s ‘acceptable’. It’s just as well. We’d never find agreement.

Preferably long after 2016, when she will have overtaken Queen Victoria as our longest-reigning monarch.

Please, no public holiday for William and Kate’s nuptials. It’s estimated we produce £6 billion worth of goods every day, which garner about £2 billion in tax, and we really can’t afford to lose it.

Have the wedding on a Saturday, as most couples do. And pay for it yourselves (except for police, security etc).

Kate Middleton has received ‘a piece of jewellery fitted with a secret James Bond-style tracking device which she must wear at all times to foil any kidnap attempts’, reports the News of the World. It will pinpoint her exact whereabouts via satellite.

Let’s hope it doesn’t also make it easier for Her Majesty’s Press reptiles at the News of the World to keep track of the Queen-to-be... and that William checked for hidden devices before giving her his mother’s engagement ring.

A case of the 'ex' factor?

For the chop? Mezhgan Hussainy is still engaged, or at least she thinks she is

Is the wedding still on? Beverly Hills-based Ms Hussainy, who continues to wear her £250,000 Graff diamond engagement ring, tells the Mail on Sunday: ‘I still love him and he says he still loves me and we are still engaged - as far as I know.’

As far as I know! It doesn’t sound very positive. ­Bachelor boy Cowell’s mother, Julie - to whom he is very close - says: ‘It’s a break at the moment ...I think the engagement was too quick.’

Meanwhile ‘friends’ suggest that Cowell will tell Ms Hussainy it’s all off when he returns to LA. Tin hats on!

One foot in the gravy

Now we’ve seen through all of them, Messrs Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson earn big money giving speeches and advice to foreigners.

What have they got to sell? Their knowledge of how our government operates and their contacts at Westminster.

Are these assets - paid for by the taxpayer - theirs to sell? Strictly speaking, no. They should retire to academe and share their secrets with students. But there are no big fees, first-class travel and expenses in that.

So why doesn’t the Government oblige former politicos to share their knowledge with students, in retirement, pro bono?

Because they all expect to climb on the old gravy train one day.

Coalition scapegoat

The swift departure last week of Lord Young of Graffham from No 10 - rebuked by David Cameron for saying we’d ‘never had it so good’ - is now almost forgotten. The waters have closed above the former businessman who said he deeply regretted his comments.

Most fair-minded commentators think Young was correct in most of his remarks, but a little insensitive considering the families who are suffering.

Is Cameron so ­passionate about maintaining the support of Coalition partner Nick Clegg - who’ll cut his throat when the time comes - that he’d allow this highly useful, unpaid adviser to walk away from his government?

Feeling sexy: Dancing on Strictly has given Pamela Stephenson a whole new lease of life

Strictly Come Dancing’s Pamela Stephenson, 61, says something inside her has been unlocked during the contest, for which she has lost over two stone.

‘Quite simply, in dancing I’ve found joy again … I feel sexier, my husband (Billy Connolly) fancies me more and other men are noticing me in a way they have not done for decades.’

I wonder what they think of this up in the north-east of Scotland, where the Connollys own a property. My own north-east memories - admittedly from the distant 1950s - do not include folk of 60 dancing, except in traditional reels at weddings. Our strict, Sabbath-observing cousins in the west were said to frown on ‘mixed dancing’ for all ages.

As for women of 60-plus finding joy cavorting on dance floors, being ‘fancied’ by husbands and enjoying the experience of men noticing them again, that would have been greeted with derision, from men and women alike. Obviously, life is now more joyous in Scotland’s Deep North.

Pope Benedict's apparent relaxation of Roman Catholic teaching on birth control - saying condoms are acceptable when the intention is to reduce the risk of infections such as Aids - is likely to cause confusion.

He singles out in an interview a male prostitute who, by using a condom, displays ‘the first bit of responsibility to redevelop the understanding that not everything is permitted’. Eh?

The Vatican’s expert on sexuality, Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, says: ‘This exception must be accepted...and it must be verified that this is the only way to save life.’ Again, Eh?

Perhaps it’s a result of German being translated into Italian and then into English, but I can’t see how a male prostitute using a condom is ‘the only way to save life’.

How about not being a male prostitute? Or not having sex at all while suffering from Aids or other infections?

Won’t Roman Catholics who accept that it’s forbidden for them to use birth control regret that His Holiness is bending over backwards - as it were - to accommodate male prostitutes and their customers?

Labour’s Deputy leader, Harriet Harman, is accused of ‘treachery’ for convening a secret meeting to discuss how best to remove Gordon Brown from No 10.

She deserves a medal for trying. It’s the Labour sheep who refused to rise against barking Gordon that deserve to be culled.